


fingers shaking frantic

by goinghost



Series: location - blupjeans week 2018 [4]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Barry is a ghost, F/M, ghost au, he's haunting lup's dorm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 15:49:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14793410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goinghost/pseuds/goinghost
Summary: “You planning on pulling any poltergeist shit?”Barry looked very unsure, “No?”Lup shrugged, “Rad. Let’s keep it that way.”--Lup moves in. Barry doesn't move on. Netflix is watched.





	fingers shaking frantic

**Author's Note:**

> wrote a ghost au for blupjeans week free day! i've had this ghost au in my head for a while but i'm probably never going to actually make it a multi-chaptered fic because writing hard. we'll see! 
> 
> title from 'location' by freelance whales of course

Lup, despite herself, was nervous.

She shouldn’t be. She’d gotten a sweet deal, snagged a single. Of course, the plan was to get a room with Taako, but his Youtube cooking show had been picked up by some streaming service and they’d offered him a studio two cities over. She’d almost gone with him, almost dropped out and forgot about her NASA dreams. But she and Taako had always been Lup-and-Taako; they’d always been the only thing there for each other and now...they didn’t need to be. Taako had a business and a good boyfriend; Lup had a full ride to Faerun’s leading astrophysics program. They didn’t need to be Lup-and-Taako anymore. Lup figured she owed it to herself to try being Lup for a change

She still planned to visit, obviously. Lup was a regular guest on Sizzle It Up! They Facetimed practically every other hour, gossiping like fiends (like Lup-and-Taako), but Lup had to admit, as much as she missed her twin, it was nice to be able to just lay in her bed and not worry about someone stealing her clothes. At least, that’s what Lup told herself when she tried to reach for someone at night when she couldn’t sleep. 

But, all in all, pretty good set up she had going. There was no reason to be nervous, no reason for anxiety to crawl up her skin the moment she set foot in her dorm every single time she entered the room. 

Of course, maybe the semi-transparent figure sitting on her bed would explain it. 

“Who the fuck are you?”

The figure turned around and suddenly flickered out of existence, glowing bright red briefly as Lup felt her hair rise with static. 

Oh no, Lup was not letting some ghost or some shit get the best of her. “Excuse me!” She stepped further into the room, “I was talking to you!” 

The figure popped back into existence over by the opposite side of her dorm. They shifted nervously, rubbing a hand behind their neck. Lup got a good look at them. He was a guy, chubby with a round nose and nerdy-looking spectral glasses crooked on his face. His hair was slightly curly and filled with static, which, Lup had to admit, was kind of cute. His color was washed out and grayscale except for the bright red hoodie that he had loosely zipped up over a faded NASA t-shirt. Okay, Lup could work with this. 

He seemed uncomfortable with her staring, stuttering out an, “Uh—hi?”

“Who are you and what are you doing spooking up my room?”

“I’m—uh—I’m Barry. Nice to meet you.” He shuffled forward as if to shake her hand and suddenly he had legs to walk with. He looked like he was wearing bluejeans. 

“Cool, I’m Lup. Care to tell me what the fuck is going on here?”

“Oh...yeah. Well I’m—I’m a ghost. And I’m—uh—I’m stuck here? Sorry?”

“No, I got the ghost part. So is this a haunting? You haunting me?”

“Not by choice? I don’t exactly remember how I got here or why this place means anything. I think I was a student?” 

“You planning on pulling any poltergeist shit?”

Barry looked very unsure, “No?”

Lup shrugged, “Rad. Let’s keep it that way.” She flopped down on her small twin bed and pulled out her phone to text Taako about her new Paranormal Activity situation she had going on. Barry inched closer, seemingly fascinated by her phone. He looked so curious. 

Lup smiled, “Do you not know what this is?” 

“No, it’s—I don’t.”

“Oh,” she tapped a hand against her chin, trying to figure out what to say, “Well, it’s a phone. You probably know what that is because you’ve got a NASA shirt on.”

Barry’s form flickered in surprise, going bright red for just a moment, “That’s a phone?”

“Yeah, babe. Phones are all touchscreen and can do all kind of shit now.”

“Wow…” he floated back as if he were sitting on air. “Things really do change, huh?”

“You know it,” Lup winked, “How long’ve you been all spooky, anyway?”

He looked taken aback, “I don’t—I have no idea. Like I said, I don’t know anything about why I’m here.” He seemed very...sullen about that. The temperature in the room dropped a few degrees as his form started staticking out like an old TV. 

“Well, maybe I can help you figure it out?” Lup said, desperately trying to raise the mood. 

“Really?” He looked painfully hopeful. 

Lup thought more about her throwaway suggestion. It shouldn’t be too hard to find out information about a student that had  _ died _ unless he was a part of some underground conspiracy theory of the Institute taking people out, which Lup didn’t think was happening (but if it was that would be  _ sweet  _ to solve). And she had his name. “Yeah,” she said with a finality. “Yeah, I will.”

Barry grinned wide and the overhead light flickered and died. He was glowing faintly enough that Lup could still see his embarrassed expression, “Whoops, sorry.”

Lup laughed and used his light to navigate her way around her still-unpacked boxes to turn on the light switch. “No worries, Casper.” She went back to her bad and pulled her phone out again, the matter settled. “You wanna watch anything?”

“Watch? But the screen is so little?” 

“ _ Hmmm _ , you do have a point,” she leaned over and grabbed her laptop out of the backpack she’d set against her bed. As it was booting up she asked, “This better?” 

He pushed his nerdy-looking glasses up further on his face, which Lup doubted he actually needed to do. “Yeah...is that a computer?”

“You bet, Danny Phantom. And you better strap in because I’m about to introduce you to the world of Netflix.” 

“Net...flix? That’s a nonsense word. You just made that word up.”

Lup laughed, “Oh silly Barry, so much to learn.” She turned so that she was sitting on the bed horizontally and pat the empty space next to her. “What kinda movies and shows were you into?”

“Uh—scifi. I liked Star Trek? And sometimes they’d play Lost in Space reruns and that was cool.”

“Lost in Space, huh?” Lup opened the Netflix app and typed that into the search bar. The recent reboot popped up. She clicked it. “Get ready to be stunned by modern technology.”

“Oh, trust me,” Barry said, eyes focusing on the show unfolding before them, “I already am.”


End file.
